Case 26 - Rise of Dawn Part 1




    They say that in daylight everything is clearer, both visually and mentally.  When Keiko awoke that morning, however, she felt no different.  She already had her moment of clarity days ago, and she had felt happy ever since.
    
    She felt a little tired, which made perfect sense.  The night before on the way home she and Sean were in a car crash, and the other driver pulled Sean out of the car and began beating him.  Sean wasn't badly injured - Keiko in the passenger seat was even less so - but while she adjusted quickly to disasters she felt terrible for him having to go through such an ordeal.  
    
    Keiko decided to make up for it by offering to sleep with him.  The two of them shared much more than the other women Sean 'toyed' with, as Keiko would call it.  It was almost surreal, how Sean decided to pass up sex and simply stroke her hair and join her in recounting the evening, seeing humor where he didn't before.
    
    "Going to work?"  Keiko asked softly as Sean woke her.  She only had her eyes half open as she asked that question, being the naturally later sleeper of the two.  Sean was always amused by that - the image of a ninja who's always alert, never sleeping, was completely lost with Keiko.
    
    "Yeah,"  Sean replied as he sat on the edge of the bed next to her.  "You know I don't deserve you, Keiko.  You're much too beautiful, much too forgiving, much too sweet."
    
    She opened her eyes fully now and reached up to hug him tightly.  "Then make yourself deserving, Sean,"  she said.
    
    He stroked her hair one more time before standing and picking up his badge and gun for work.  "I'll see you for lunch, though,"  he said.  "I'll ask Matt if they're ready to approve you to work with me again."
    
    "I'll call Matt later on then so he doesn't feel overwhelmed."  Keiko replied.  "Meanwhie I plan I'll talk to Steve.  Maybe before this day is over things will look up."
    
    Sean smiled.  He didn't even have to say anything, his look of happiness at Keiko planning to do the one thing he wish she would was enough.  "I'll see you at lunch,"  he said, suddenly hurrying as he realized he was starting to run late.  It would be bad to show up late and then ask for a favor.
    
    As soon as she couldn't hear Sean walking around again Keiko closed her eyes again and briefly napped some more.




---




    It was a couple hours later when Keiko finally left her house.  It was warm out so she went without a jacket, and wearing a pair of sunglasses.  More casual than usual in sneakers and dark blue jeans simply because she felt like it, and partly because the warm, humid air brought with it the threat of sudden spring rains.
    
    Keiko drove up to Steve's apartment and parked directly in front.  It was strange, she felt, because there was a shadow of a thought in her mind that she was in for some kind of ambush and she should be sneaking in.  But she also knew that was plain ridiculous, a reaction to his earlier betrayal.
    
    She knocked on the door, still wearing sunglasses, wearing a blank expression partly to hide her own nervousness and partly to leave Steve unsure what to expect.
    
    Steve opened the door and looked shocked at first, and then a little afraid.
    
    "I'd like to talk,"  Keiko whispered.  "May I come in?"
    
    He nodded once and stepped aside to allow her past.  He closed the door and followed her into the dinner table, where she stopped and leaned against the table with her arms folded and took off her sunglasses.
    
    "I don't want to hate you,"  Keiko spoke softly.  She looked down at the floor as she said that.  "It poisons my soul, because you're...close to Sean.  I don't want to be angry with you anymore because it hurts me too."
    
    Steve didn't reply.  He wasn't sure what to say.
    
    "First, however, I have to ask just one question."  Keiko looked up.  "I asked it before, I know, but I have to make sure.  Why did you betray me?"
    
    He noticed that hurt look in her eyes.  She was prepared for the worst possible answer, and it broke her heart.  "I thought I could control the situation, to bring you into my department so I could...call off the dogs, so to speak."
    
    "But they fooled you too,"  she noted.
    
    "Yeah."  Steve nodded sadly.  This time it was his turn to look down.  "I thought I was someone important.  I thought I could save you.  It turned out I was nothing and nobody, and in the process I lost...everything."
    
    "Steve."  Keiko said, getting him to look at her again.  "I never gave up on you.  If I did you wouldn't be alive now."
    
    He looked frightened at that implication for a moment before he realized that last part was Keiko attempting to be funny.  He asked her, "Are you trying to make peace with me because Sean asked you to?"
    
    "No."  She shook her head.  "I want to make peace with myself."
    
    Steve looked down again, feeling embarassed for his suggestion.  "I've been very lonely,"  he said suddenly, "trying to rebuild my life so I can be a part of something again.  It's been so depressing."
    
    Keiko could hear the desperation in his voice.  He was a man on the edge of begging for help yet he tried to keep control.  She frowned slightly and reached over to him and hugged him very gently, careful to show caring but not to give him the wrong idea.  "I saved your life once, Steve, and I stuck with you while you healed.  I was very angry with you but I discovered I couldn't really let you go...I thought about you a lot, and whether you were happy or safe."
    
    "You did?"  he asked sadly.
    
    She nodded.  "When I became an assassin, Steve...I never imagined I'd be protecting so many people.  I never imagined it would make me happy to keep other people safe.  It's so addictive, such a strong need for me, that even hurting my feelings so deeply isn't enough to discourage me from trying."
    
    "I guess you're...very forgiving."  Steve noted.
    
    Keiko nodded slowly, and a moment or two of silence passed before she was the first to speak again.  "What have you been up to?"
    
    "There's a girl I've been thinking of asking out,"  he said slowly, a little reluctantly.  "I'm just...I'm not sure.  I screw up so many things--"
    
    "If you need any advice I'll help you,"  Keiko interrupted, sensing that's the response he was trying to prod out of her.
    
    As Keiko anticipated, that quieted Steve's worries and made him smile.
    
    After that was only silence.  Neither one could think of what to say next, so they just stood next to each other leaning against the table.  Keiko looked at Steve and smiled slightly.  He didn't look nervous or frightened anymore.  It was as if they had never alienated each other.  That was a positive sign, because it meant the wounds were not so deep after all.
    
    Steve looked at the window just then, noting that the sun seemed to be dimming.  He walked over to get a closer look.  Finally he said, "Did you bring an umbrella?"
    
    Keiko's mouth hung open for a moment, she wan't sure exactly what to say.  Then she simply said, "I didn't think it was supposed to rain."
    
    "It was in the forecast,"  Steve noted.
    
    She shrugged, not wanting to admit that she was much too distracted to check the forecast.  "Rain doesn't bother me, Steve."  She smiled as a memory came back to her.  "I used to get soaked in rainstorms while still working as an assassin.  I couldn't exactly carry an umbrella, and when the time is right I couldn't exactly delay it until the rain stopped."
    
    Steve tried not to smile, thinking to himself that he was happy Keiko was starting to open up to him.  "I think that's the first story from your past you've told me."
    
    Keiko looked at him, her eyes distant as she went through vague recent memories.  "I'm sure I told you some others."
    
    "Doesn't matter."  Steve shook his head.  "I'm happy you're telling me now."
    
    "It is the foundation to a good friendship,"  Keiko said.  "Talking about things.  Without it, there is only...emptiness."


    "Kind of what I felt when you weren't speaking to me,"  Steve noted sadly.
    
    Keiko folded her arms and sighed.  "I suppose it's better I penalized you that way, you learned something.  If I had killed you, you would have learned nothing."
    
    Steve looked at Keiko, unsure if she was joking or still in good spirits.  But she was smiling.  She had a truly chilling sense of humor sometimes.  "Yeah, I guess."  he replied nervously.
    
    "We should have lunch sometimes,"  Keiko invited him.  "Not today because I promised Sean already.  But sometimes."
    
    "Sounds good."  Steve sounded more cheery again.
    
    Keiko then gently took his hand as she strolled toward the door, only to turn around again and look him in the eye.  "I don't want you to feel alone again,"  she said.
    
    Steve smiled, but he didn't get a chance to say anything as she left.  Even so those words stuck with him.




---




    Keiko wasn't surprised that Sean was late for the lunch he promised.  He was always late, he tended to get distracted.  She knew well what would distract him, and probably did, but she consciously decided not to think about it.  Her days of being angry over Sean's activities were over.
    
    He arrived about a half hour late, looking rushed as he entered Keiko's home and his temporary one.  "Sorry,"  he said, "I had to run back to the office before coming here."
    
    "Back to the office from where?"  Keiko caught him as she leaned against the dining room table.
    
    "From uh--"  Sean paused, trying to think of something to say, not looking forward to upsetting her again.
    
    "Sean, just say it,"  Keiko told him calmly.  "I already pretty much know.  And I would rather be someone you can talk to than one who suffers because you don't."
    
    "If you already know then why do I have to say it?"  Sean pointed out.
    
    Keiko nodded calmly and then shrugged.  "I suppose you're right."  She picked up a bottle of water from the table and took a sip.  "But perhaps you should ask yourself why you would rather not say it."  She gave Sean a momentary dark look and then headed to the kitchen.  She had already picked up some take-out to eat.  She didn't see the guilty look on his face.
    
    As soon as she entered the kitchen her phone rang.  She looked at the number - it was Matt calling from his office?  She wondered why, since she wasn't working there, and quietly hoped he was inviting her back.
    
    "Is Sean over there?"  Matt asked, his voice sounding strained and a little paranoid in a way that set off an alarm in Keiko's mind.
    
    "Yes,"  she replied truthfully.  "Why not simply call him?"
    
    Matt didn't reply to that.  He breathed heavily, angrily into the phone, as if he were coming to some kind of decision.  "You know that file Anthony Wilder had on you?"  he asked.
    
    This time it was Keiko's turn to pause, and her heart sped up.  She was pretty good at figuring things out, and she knew blackmail when she heard it long before the sentence was complete.


    "I think Karen is--"  Matt's voice ended abruptly, as if he meant to say some very foul words...but being something of a politician he couldn't appear to lose control of his demeanor.  "You wanted to start a private detective agency?  I want you to find out who this person is."
    
    Keiko looked through the doorway of the kitchen at Sean, who was sitting at the dining room table still looking guilty.
    
    "I want you you find out,"  Matt's voice continued.  "And if it's true, I don't want to see Karen or him anymore, understand?  And then this file will disappear."
    
    This time Keiko felt ice run through her veins.  She was always scared to hear someone talk like that, though she would never tell anyone or show it outwardly.  She quietly replied, "I understand," and hung up the phone.
    
    She took a deep breath before putting on a smile again and carrying the take-out food into the dining room to face Sean.




TO BE CONTINUED




-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2007 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 
--    reprinted without permission.  
-- World Class and all characters therein are property of 
--    Strike Two and Jason Froikin.